We Reading what are – July 2023

by | Jul 30, 2023 | Choose Your Own Adventure | 259 comments

Dr Otto

They’re Lying : The Media, The Left, and the Death of George Floyd by Liz Collin

Minnesota/Twin Cities glibs probably recognize Liz’s name from the local WCCO news casts. She lost her job during the summer of fiery but mostly peaceful protests when they removed her from reporting due to what could have appeared as a conflict of interest due to her husband’s job as head of the police union. You may or may not remember mobs of people protesting her husband’s stance on the firings of the 4 officers involved. This also involved fire in the form of effigies and mostly peaceful death threats.

I haven’t gotten far into the book yet, and it already seems apparent that when it suits them, police unions get very concerned about “due process”. I may or may not finish the book due to it already being mostly what I have already heard about St. George of Fentanyl. So far, the one new nugget I have read that I didn’t see in any reporting was that Floyd was also a suspect in a rape allegation that was reported just previous to his fatal run in with the police. I guess the moral of the story is there were probably no good people involved in this incident on either side. This book is the police version of “didn’t do nothin’ ”

 

ZWAK

I finished the first book of the Silo trilogy (I know, late to the party) and enjoyed it, and although it could have been edited a bit tighter, I do understand that long door-stopper books are still in fashion. One interesting thing about the books, for those who might care, is that the maintenance of the Silo is described quite accurately. All of the talk about generator shaft alignment, pump wiring, and so on, was either well researched or the author did it for a living. Which is nice.

Still working my way through The Golden Century, a history of BSA sporting firearms. When you are a collector of objects, guns, books, tools, etc. you can easily spend nearly as much on reference books and whatnot. I have this author’s other book, BSA and Lincoln Jefferies Air Rifles, which focuses on pre-WWI production, as I have one from that period. I also picked up Early 20th Century Stanley Tools; a price guide. And although I knew it was outdated when I got it, it does have reprinted in it two catalogs from the turn of last century. As I said, the reference becomes just as important.

I also started Isobel Colegate’s Orlando the King, an interesting retelling of the Oedipal myth moved to England in prewar.

 

Dbeagle

This was a very busy moth at work and with the sailing thing so my reading count is down.

Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War 1941-1943 by John McManus. If you received the Purple Heart in the Pacific War in WWII statistically you were a US ground Soldier and not in the Navy or Marine Corps. Despite those Services roles their participation in the war was dwarfed by the US Army. The WWII Pacific (and CBI) campaigns are much less known in the US than the European campaigns. Rick Atkinson’s trilogy on the Army in Africa and Europe is well known and the 2d volume even won the Pulitzer Prize. McManus put out his trilogy on a similar timeline and to my shame I had never heard of it until last month. I finished Volume 1 this month and it is a rich and rewarding history which I highly recommend. He shows the steep learning curve the Army undertook in learning to fight and dominate a formidable foe. My contempt for McArthur grew as I learned how he fought against any other generals receiving the Medal of Honor in the Pacific and kept high performing subordinates from being promoted into positions that could have saved US lives. McManus also went through the archives to get the translations of hmultiple Japanese diaries to show battles from both sides. With a fine eye he covers the fights from the Aleutian Islands in the north to the bitter and unknown New Guinea fighting in the south from the individual rifleman to corps command concerns. I have already requested volume two. Highly recommend.

Well I missed the deadline for June submissions so I will add on McManus’s second volume Island Infernos which covers 1944. Another highly recommended volume and I just received Volume 3 (To The Ends of the Earth) through ILL. I am only 30 or so pages in and he has retained the same high standard of writing and using US and Japanese diaries and official reports. Recommend as well.

I also read technical stuff on current and projected PRC military capacity and capabilities. Suffice it to say that if we fight the PLA it will not be like fighting the Serbian or Iraqi militaries. They aren’t ten feet tall and have issues with fighting in a joint manner, but they have a “metric shit tonne” of stuff and home field advantage.

 

LACK

Hey buddy, here is my submission.

The screwtape letters:

In this engrossing read CS Lewis takes on the role of a demon named screwtape to write letters to a young, aspiring demon trying to tempt a man’s heart to the dark side. The concept is fun and engaging, but the content is deadly serious. This one had me both laughing and thinking deeply. It’s interesting to see a lot of the temptations I suffer from mentioned and the author including real life solutions in the form of his advice to the tempting demon of what not to allow his victim to do. Highly recommend this.

From the Silent Planet:

A little on the nose as CS Lewis tends to be, but this is a great Sci Fi to read if you enjoy some of the old classics. Intrepid adventurers travel to another world on a long shot trip, discover strange creatures and planet with a deep secret that affects the earth. Great stuff.

 

Fourscore

Last fall I laid in my winter’s reading, the pile grew a book or two around Xmas. On the bottom of the pile was Young Benjamin Franklin, authored by Nick Bunker. I finally got around to reading what I thought was going to be a dry and boring book.

Most of what I and perhaps you know about Ol’ Ben was his later years in France, enjoying all the French things. Surprisingly enough Young Ben had a childhood, doing those things that border on daring and mischief. As he grows in years so does he grow in his philosophy, taking a little here, some there and eventually emerges as a businessman, sometimes successful, sometimes not.

I’m not quite finished but at this point he’s now into his 30s, politically adjusting to become the B. Franklin we remember from a high school American History class.

Anyone that’s interested can get a once read 1st Edition that was remaindered by giving a holler.

 

RICHARD

This month’s desperate attempts to escape reality included re-reading the Spatterjay trilogy set in Neal Asher’s Polity universe:

https://www.goodreads.com/series/49126-spatterjay

There are several plots going on in these books set late in the Polity timeline. One of them is an awesome rags-to-riches story.

I recently got my greedy hands on a copy of the two volumes of the 1861 Report on the Geology of Vermont by finally wrestling them from my father’s greedy hands:

https://dec.vermont.gov/geological-survey/publication-gis/vermont-geology/ReportOnGeologyOfVermont

I’m halfway through the first volume and it’s so interesting that I’m going to write an article about the report when I’m done. The author makes some references to the work of a contemporary, a Mr. Charles Darwin, who at that time was primarily known as a geologist.

Last month I mentioned that I read Jim Butcher’s latest book The Aeronaut’s Windlass. This made me recall I’d never watched the 2007 TV series of Butcher’s “The Dresden Files”:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486657/

So I watched it. It’s pretty good but not nearly as gritty as the books. I know this because I was then inspired to re-read the books. I’m in the middle of the series now.

The 2023 Hugo award nominations are out:

The only novel on the list that I’d read was Nona the Ninth which I didn’t like:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58662507-nona-the-ninth

I just read two more:

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56179377-nettle-bone

Which is a very Kingfisher-like production and similar to some of her other books. It’s not Science Fiction and it’s not of Hugo caliber.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57693406-the-kaiju-preservation-society

This is Science Fiction and there are a lot of SF jokes. While the concept and execution are good it’s also not of Hugo caliber.

 

The Hyperbole

Slow month again, I finished the first Hardman and Hump novel – Atlanta Deathwatch,  that I mentioned last month, it was just as good as I’d heard so I read the second – The Charleston Knife is back in Town  and am on to the third – The Golden Girl and All. Written and set in the 70’s, Hardman an ex-cop turned sorta PI and his partner Hump, ex-NFL work the mean streets of Atlanta on both sides of the law. There are only 12 or so books in the series and the author, Ralph Dennis died in 1988 so hopefully they don’t flame out, like so many multiple novel series do. Joe R Lansdale of Hap and Leonard fame writes the forward to the collection I got and claims he had this series in mind when creating Messrs Collins and Pine.

Speaking of Joe, I also read his latest The Donut Legion, a standalone thriller/crime/mystery. A writers ex-wife goes missing and he and his hard ass PI brother investigate. Cults, Murders, ghosts, a dog named Tag, and a killer, cowboy-hat-wearing chimpanzee. All the fun you’ve come to expect from The Champion Mojo Storyteller.

About The Author

The Hyperbole

The Hyperbole

The Hyperbole can beat any of you chumps at Earthshaker! the greatest pinball machine of all time.

259 Comments

  1. MikeS

    Good afternoon.

    • Brochettaward

      Let me First this up for you.

      *clinks bottles together*

      Glibertariat…come out to play-ay

      Glibertariat…come out to plaaaaayyy–aaaayyy

      Glibertariat…come out to plllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy

  2. LCDR_Fish

    Zwak – the pic I posted last thread is my uncle’s ’53. He’s done a lot of restoration and rebuilds on it but he needs to get caught up on some body repairs- not sure about trying any mods outside the factory standard.

    Missed the cutoff to share reads. Finished rereading Marooned on Realtime and almost done with book 2 of Monster Hunters. Also started Horus Heresy as part of my navy travel kindle reading.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      An f-head was what Jeep used before they went to an overhead valve, but after the original flathead, and it allows you to go speeds over about 45mph, so 55! it isn’t really a mod, so much as a natural development. The hocky puck mod is just putting spacers (hocky pucks are cheap and the right size) between the body and frame. It allows a taller tire to fit, which allows a better final drive ratio (the tires being the last point in the gear train) which also gives a slightly better speed. Between the two it keeps you from having to trailer it to a spot you want to drive it in.

      • LCDR_Fish

        The speedometer goes to 60 but he prefers to keep it around 55, so I guess he may have already done that mod – or the ’53 was a little better than the WWII version albeit with a lot of shared parts. Easier to stay on the back roads – kinda painful even in the left lane of 287 in CO.

      • LCDR_Fish

        *right lane

      • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

        +1 trail rated!

  3. Sensei

    If you received the Purple Heart in the Pacific War in WWII statistically you were a US ground Soldier and not in the Navy or Marine Corps.

    Did not know that.

    • dbleagle

      By spring 1945 there were 1.8 million ground component Soldiers in the Pacific and that number kept going up. The only place that had more was northern Europe. Italy was way back with a small fraction of what was in the Pacific. There were enough Field Armies (3) that Marshall offered an Army Group HQ and Dugout Doug turned him down because he did not want another four star Army general potentially “stealing” his glory.

      • juris imprudent

        Enjoyed Manchester’s MacArthur biography American Caesar. MacArthur saw himself as indispensable, when it was actually Marshall that was.

  4. Mojeaux

    Cults, Murders, ghosts, a dog named Tag, and a killer, cowboy-hat-wearing chimpanzee. All the fun you’ve come to expect from The Champion Mojo Storyteller.

    Plus the kitchen sink.

    If a little’s good, a lot’s gotta be better.

  5. Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

    Hmm, I think I might need to pick up that Lansdale. I haven’t read one of his since The Bottoms came out.

    In further ZWAK news, I was fitted for a foot orthotic to help with my drop foot. When we found a trial size that fit and was the right flexability for me, I walked the best I have in a half-dozen years. It was so damn nice I nearly cried. I forgot how much I like walking. If insurance doesn’t cover it, I am gonna pay cash for that damn thing.

    • Sensei

      That’s awesome! How much does one of those things run uninsured?

      I’m reminded of the audiologist cartel. It’s better that grandma not be able to hear at all than be fitted with a bad hearing device.

      I think that only took something like 75 years or so to break.

      • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

        I don’t know, but the wife and I talked about it and it is a go (unless it is over 10k)

    • Fourscore

      Good to hear you’re going to get more mobile again, Zwak,
      I had a 3/8 inch lift put in my right shoe. I think it could have been a little more. I’m trying to find a hard sole slipper that can take a lift. I spent a lot of time indoors, one problem is just finding a size 14 slipper. I still limp badly but way better than not walking at all.

      • Gender Traitor

        I’ve had good luck with this online shoe vendor. Not cheap, but more geared toward foot health than a lot of other sites: Footsmart.com, Men’s slippers, Size 14

      • Fourscore

        Thanks GT, I emailed them with my questions, we’ll see what happens.

  6. John Nerfherder

    Heads up for Craig

    https://twitter.com/ChiefSVP/status/1685685792008536064

    “ If your name is Craig and your wife is at the gym in Houston right now, she’s leaving you and filing for divorce after the sale of your company is finalized.

    -per the woman holding up the leg press while speaking to her lawyer.”

    • Sensei

      Spread it wide, spread it far!

    • MikeS

      Godspeed, Craig.

  7. John Nerfherder

    And now we know. Yet another win for the Russkies.

    https://twitter.com/OvertonLive/status/1685669531547484160


    Overton
    @OvertonLive
    ·
    4h
    NOW- The French embassy in Niger is attacked as protesters waving Russian flags march through the capital”

    Bad news for French nuclear reactors

    • cyto

      Protesters in Niger waving Russian flags target the French embassy…….

      OK, my knowledge of international politics is *severely* lacking.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, no idea what that is all about.

      • John Nerfherder

        Niger is a French colony and one of their major yellowcake suppliers.

        This is basically a repudiation of the West. It’s been happening over and over in Africa. I think this makes six or seven times over the past couple of years.

        Most of this blowback is tied to Ukraine and the weaponization of the financial system. Not to mention the decades of the war on terror.

        Simply put, Africa is abandoning the West. It’s a complete and total foreign policy fuckup.

      • R C Dean

        OK, I’m not so sure hanging Africa on China and Russia is necessarily a bad thing for us.

      • LCDR_Fish

        That’s a different direction than I was imagining given the cooperation the US and Niger (with France) had vs ISIS (North Africa variant) a few years ago – leading to the ambush of the US Army team.

        It might be a follow-up to the CAR intervention by Wagner a few years ago where Russia’s trying to throw their weight around.

        That said…given how China’s been blowing their load on the Belt and Road initiative in Africa (and elsewhere) – see coverage by ADV China, etc – I think they’re going to be sorely disappointed if they think they’ll get a better deal from anyone else.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        And it looks like Biden is going to make a bunch of uranium deposits of limits by declaring a national monument. Not winning.

      • DEG

        Ostensibly, Niger stopped being a colony in the 60s.

        In reality……

      • John Nerfherder

        Oh and this…

        https://twitter.com/snarwani/status/1685714534915342336

        Macron freaking out because the next step is for Africans to eliminate the ‘colonial tax’ that keeps France’s economy alive.

        We’re witnessing the final collapse of the old colonial order.

      • rhywun

        the ‘colonial tax’ that keeps France’s economy alive

        ?

      • John Nerfherder

        “ The French colonial tax is a controversial obligation on CFA Franc Zone members that requires them to store 50% of their foreign exchange reserves in an operations account held at the French Treasury.2 It has been enforced by France for about 75 years and extracts approximately 500 billion dollars from African countries each year.”

      • R C Dean

        “The American income tax is a controversial obligation on American residents and citizens that requires them to store 28% of their income in an account held at the Treasury Department.”

        Something like that, maybe?

      • John Nerfherder

        It props up the French treasury but the real question is whether those reserves are accessible and under what terms.

        To wit:

        “ Despite the two main African banks having African names, they have no monetary policies of their own. In fact France allows them to access only 15% of the money in any given year. If there is need for any more, they need to borrow the extra money from their own 65% from the French Treasury at commercial rates.”

        And typically, if you don’t comply with reserves requirement, you get coup’d.

        Once the system starts to topple, France is in deep, deep economic shit. They’ll probably nationalize the reserves (steal it) and/or go to war in Africa in order to save themselves.

      • rhywun

        So what do they get in return for being members of this “CFA Franc Zone”?

      • John Nerfherder

        Fucked over

        Unless of course you happen to be their puppet dictator

      • rhywun

        Unless of course you happen to be their puppet dictator

        Now it’s making sense.

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM

        Yeah, that one’s got me scratching my head a little as well . . .

    • John Nerfherder

      https://twitter.com/AfricaFactsZone/status/1685748039762292736

      “ Niger has suspended the export of gold and uranium to France.

      France suspended aid to Niger after the coup.

      1 out of every 3 light bulbs in France is powered with uranium from Niger.

      Uranium generates electricity, yet only 18% of Niger’s citizens have access to electricity.”

      I’m going to bet that Russia has promised to help them develop their electrical grid using Russian reactor designs. I’d say France is phucked.

      • Sean

        Macron getting the Gaddafi treatment would be delicious.

      • Homple

        Looks like the colonial chickens are coming home to cross the road or something.

  8. cyto

    OK nerds… new question….

    I followed a twitter link and they want you to sign in to read the thread.

    I went to my Chrome menu to check my password manager. On the menu was “Install Twitter”.

    Only on Twitter.com pages.

    How are they doing that? Is that new? I have never noticed that feature of Chrome before.

    • John Nerfherder

      I’m assuming it’s an extension and Twitter negotiated a deal with Google to have it featured on their pages.

      • cyto

        Also interesting…. this is on the really old HP Stream netbook I repurposed with Linux Mint … so clicking the “Install Twitter” menu item takes me to an error page about directory access for the flatpack. Yet twitter somehow got installed.

        It seems to be a simple wrapper for the webpage. the app manager shows a ruby interface and a python interface…. this seems to be neither. Just a frameless window with the HTML render engine and plugins from chrome.

      • Pat

        clicking the “Install Twitter” menu item takes me to an error page about directory access for the flatpack. Yet twitter somehow got installed.

        Flatpak has some sandboxing automatically enabled, so you have to manually configure access to directories outside the default, which IIRC is ~/.var/app/app_name

        It seems to be a simple wrapper for the webpage. the app manager shows a ruby interface and a python interface…. this seems to be neither. Just a frameless window with the HTML render engine and plugins from chrome.

        Probably an Electron app. Electron is just a self-contained chromium window that allows webshitters to run their webshit on your local machine without creating a local interface or having to worry about targeting the local hardware. WORA for the ’20s, basically.

    • Sensei

      Phone or desktop?

      I’ve noticed that as recent addition to Chrome on Android.

      • cyto

        Linux. Which makes it even weirder. Per above it failed to install but installed a flatpack that makes a frameless chrome window as the twitter app…. and now when I go to twitter pages in chrome I have “uninstall twitter” as an option.

      • cyto

        Firefox did not give a similar result.

    • UnCivilServant

      Well, the first two mistakes you’ve made are using chrome and storing your passwords in the browser.

      But I’m pretty sure it means they’re decrentalizing their processing so you’d be hosting a twitter server on your device if you installed that.

      /lies & damn lies

      • cyto

        Oh, crap…. they are pulling a mastadon on me!

    • Pat

      If you’re only interested in reading the thread, not commenting, use Nitter. Some of the instances have been getting temporarily rate-limited, but it usually clears up in a few minutes after refreshing. The Libredirect plugin includes a convenient list of public instances from which you can choose and automatically redirects to those when you click Twitter links.

  9. DEG

    I finished “The Shaping of Middle-Earth”, the fourth volume of “The History of Middle-Earth”. I liked seeing the history of the maps, but I’m getting a little tired of seeing each iteration of the parts of the “Silmariliion”.

    I have RFJ, Jr’s “The Real Anthony Fauci” queued up to read next.

    • hayeksplosives

      I read “The Real Anthony Fauci”. I knew Fauci was evil, but I didn’t know just how bad it was and for how long.

      Also didn’t know that taxpayer funded researchers could “own” rights to medications they helped develop and approve AND NOW EARN ROYALTIES ON! How is that not a huge conflict of interest???

      • R C Dean

        That’s just wrong. Every company is quite clear that whatever you develop while working for them belongs to them as a “work made for hire” unless you specifically contract (in writing) otherwise.

        And, yeah, that’s a wider open avenue for corruption, since the commercialization (and revenue royalties) are all from the companies they are supposed to be regulating.

  10. Sensei

    I’m currently reading:

    The Apothecary Diaries

    Rather interesting because it takes place in a fictionalized China in a fictionalized version of the Forbidden City. It uses Chinese names, but all the professions are Japanese. So a court entertainer would be called a Geisha instead of whatever the Chinese equivalent would have been.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    I learned, from watching youtube videos, Subaru gearbox cases split in half longitudinally. I’m not sure how strong they are, but they look pretty easy to work on.

    • Sensei

      Why not. Engine block does the same…

      Wonder if the gaskets in the transmission hold up better than block?

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Wonder if the gaskets in the transmission hold up better than block?

    There doesn’t appear to be a gasket; just sealer. I’m surprised the mating surface isn’t grooved for an o-ring.

    • Sensei

      Modern gasket makers are amazing if used appropriately.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    They also (if I saw it right) have a very clever threaded adjustment for locating the ring gear laterally. Much better than swapping shims from side to side.

    • Gender Traitor

      That combination may be just what I need right now. I’m having trouble maintaining motivation to continue the books I’ve started most recently.

      • Gender Traitor

        Not available in paper or electrons from my own library, but I think I just managed to request it be sent to my nearest bricks & mortar library from an adjacent county!

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        The Wodehouse part is high praise. I hear there’s a sequel.

      • Gender Traitor
      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Must be.

  14. Suthenboy

    I just ordered the federalst and the anti-federalist papers
    I havent lookd at them since the summer between 7th and 8th grade.

    • Pat

      The anti-federalists have been utterly vindicated by history, but won’t be acknowledged for it for another couple hundred years or so. We have to wait until the United States finishes its soft landing and adopts a new constitution and currency before it will be socially and politically acceptable to question the wisdom of our venerable central state-loving founders on any topic besides slavery.

      • Lackadaisical

        There were one or two things they had wrong on the specifics, but they certainly got the trajectory correct.

      • R C Dean

        “We have to wait until the United States finishes its soft landing”

        If we’re lucky. I’m looking at quasi-religious fanatics with their hands on the levers of state power squaring up against hundreds of millions of privately owned firearms, and, well, I’m not so optimistic.

      • kinnath

        I was sorting through all the stuff I bought in 2020 and 2021. Oh look, here’s another box of magazines. How many rounds of 308 did I buy?

        My panic levels subsided once Sinema and Manchin quashed any packing of SCOTUS. But I have no regrets over stocking up on everything I could two years ago.

        And a voice in the bad of my head keeps saying “buy more!”.

      • Pat

        For all their tuff gai “don’t tread on me” rhetoric, I think the COVID hysteria was a good object lesson on the flyover rubes’ willingness to use their guns for anything besides online dick measuring contests. The small minority that doesn’t beat their swords into ploughshares medical syringes will get Ruby/Waco’d, and nothing else will happen.

      • kinnath

        I don’t know anyone who thought the Covid lockdown was justification for starting a civil war.

        Nor do I know anyone that thought that BLM/Antifa riots were justification for starting a civil war.

        But I do not that record numbers of guns and ammunition were sold during that time frame. And those sales included millions of new gun buyers.

      • kinnath

        But I do not know that . . . .

        fucking typos

      • DEG

        I don’t know anyone who thought the Covid lockdown was justification for starting a civil war.

        There were a few on the fringes of Reopen NH protests. I suspect government plants.

      • R C Dean

        If not race riots promoted by the government, economic lockdowns, and mandatory participation in genetic experiments, then what?

      • kinnath

        Civil war means millions of dead people; the destruction of power grids; near total disruption of commerce. It is the end of life as we know it.

        So, how bad does it have to get before you give up on working in the system to correct the problems and start burning it down?

        I don’t know. The last two years weren’t worth burning down my whole life.

        But, I do fear that there are many, many people on the social justice side that look forward to the destruction of life as we know it. They believe it is a necessary step on the path to utopia.

        And this is why I am so black-pilled at this point.

      • Lackadaisical

        “I don’t know anyone who thought the Covid lockdown was justification for starting a civil war.”

        Feels like part of the problem.

      • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

        The problem with the Covid lockdown was a case of boiling a frog. The gov’t, which enjoyed large amounts of trust at that point, just kept ramping up the fear. And then, nothing. Nowhere near enough people died, too many gov’t actors lied, and, well, you know the rest. But I don’t think that will happen again, as they destroyed trust.

        This was supposed to be a core funtion of Big Government, and it failed at every level and on every metric.

      • rhywun

        I don’t think that will happen again, as they destroyed trust

        I actually think it will play exactly the same next time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

      • Pat

        I actually think it will play exactly the same next time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

        Put me in this pessimist contingent as well. I live in a town where a giant firearms training facility comprises a major part of the local economy, where if you spend a full 8 hour shift inside the local Walmart you are guaranteed to see at least a dozen people legally open carrying their handguns, and every last one of them was dutifully strapping an old t-shirt to their face, standing on floor decals 6 feet apart from each other, and following one-way signs in the aisles while they waited for the weekly ration of toilet paper.

      • rhywun

        I wore the feed bag in order to not get kicked out of shops, but I never played along with the “social distancing” silliness.

      • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

        Maybe I am too much the optimist, but I really do think “once bitten, twice shy” re covid. I know it will work for some people, as we see the masks STILL, but too many only wore them out of faith in the country, and that has been destroyed. If you look at the numbers, it is up to 53% of the pop who think the D’s cheated. Faith in higher ed is way down, faith in anything actually, is way down. People aren’t buying Bidenomics, they know that the job numbers are only as high as they are due to people getting of Covid relief, and so on. Nothing says that ended up working.

        But, like I said, I am too much the optimist sometimes.

      • rhywun

        @zwak

        I get it, but I also have zero trust in the election system.

        If more than half the country are right that 2020 was stolen, then… what are they going to do about it?

      • R C Dean

        “If more than half the country are right that 2020 was stolen,”

        How many of those are glad it was stolen?

      • kinnath

        How many of those are glad it was stolen?

        Enough to ensure it continues to happen.

      • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

        I am with kinnath; people kept cool, as they know the stakes. Were there plants at every protest? Mmm, you betcha! But at the same time the number of gunsales went up, the types of peopel who bought guns went up, and by the end of it, more eyes were opened.

        There isn’t going to be a hot civil war, but there are going to be more and more areas that aren’t under direct gov’t control, and the locals will step in, a la Rittenhouse. They may come in post facto, like with Rittenhouse, but the stage is set.

      • Pat

        I don’t know anyone who thought the Covid lockdown was justification for starting a civil war.

        That’s rather the point. The yokel vanguard that’s sitting around waiting for the Red Dawn scenario is going to be just a wee bit too late to have any meaningful impact on the outcome if that’s how it actually plays out. And if they couldn’t be fucked to get off their ass and go block traffic downtown in their state capital to protest being put under house arrest for 2 and a half years over what amounted to a bad flu, color me skeptical that they actually bother showing up for The Big One. I keep hearing about how “Well, when they start coming for our kids…” as if this was still the 19th century and all of these people’s children were being taught by a teenage Laura Ingalls Wilder in a one-room country schoolhouse or something.

        But I do not that record numbers of guns and ammunition were sold during that time frame. And those sales included millions of new gun buyers.

        And this is the point I’m getting around to: They’re LARPers. Like the BLM retard in Austin brandishing his fresh-from-the-dealer AK-47, giving press interviews about how nobody has enough balls to come confront him, and then getting his melon split by a little personal defense pea shooter when he was too slow from the down-ready position to outdraw the poor beleaguered motorist he forced off the road.

      • MikeS

        And if they couldn’t be fucked to get off their ass and go block traffic downtown in their state capital to protest being put under house arrest for 2 and a half years…

        The thing is, most of those waiting for Red Dawn are in states that weren’t locked down for 2.5 years.

      • Homple

        “The anti-federalists have been utterly vindicated by history….”

        The thing is, their system wasn’t implemented, so they don’t get blamed for any failures it might have had. Who knows?

  15. Tundra

    Working my way through “God’s Battalions, The Case For The Crusades”

    It’s very interesting but almost too much. He jumps around in time a lot and there are a LOT of players to keep track of.

    I didn’t know anything, really, about the Crusades. As usual, what we were taught is mostly horseshit. This is a good intro for me. Not I think I’ll focus on a specific person or campaign next book.

    • Pat

      I spent my high school years fairly heavily invested in taking the contrarian pro-Crusades stance (what with 9/11 and the GWOT occupying the headlines). I’ve since concluded that there is absolutely no defensible position even for personal self-defense within any of the theology ever ascribed to Christ, nor any of his followers for the first 3 centuries of Christian history, let alone for the church itself to be involved in “Just War.” Because Peter and Paul decided that pathetic obsequiousness to the state is a necessary condition for obedience to God, you don’t get a pass if they snatch you off the street, shove a weapon in your hand, and tell you you’re at war, but short of that, the only logical circuit to church-sponsored violence is straight through the obstacle course of base rationalization of your already-chosen outcome. It’s always surprised me that it was Augustine of all the church fathers who landed on that bit of sophistry. Here’s a man so fastidiously pious that he refuses to listen to liturgical music lest he appreciate it sensually rather than spiritually, but get him motivated enough and he can use the words of the world’s most famous pacifist, who suffered the most extreme injustice ever perpetrated according to the Christian understanding, to justify mass murder in service of high mindedness.

      • Tundra

        I think you are correct. Men will justify war in any way they can. Just call it what it is: repelling invaders to retake land.

        I guess in some respects it’s impressive that the Church of Rome was able to mobilize just a few short years post-schism. Any other book recommendations? Justified scripturally or not, it’s an interesting topic.

      • Pat

        Any other book recommendations? Justified scripturally or not, it’s an interesting topic.

        I can’t for the life of me remember the title now, but there was a book that came out around 2004-5, I think it was, addressing defensive violence, particularly gun violence, from a Christian perspective. It largely informed my aforementioned, ultimately-abortive attempts at reconciling Christianity with the natural law, common law, and common sense doctrines of self-defense we’ve developed over the centuries. Eventually I decided it’s better to just be an honest but inconsistent and poor excuse for a Christian and hope that pleading the blood will be sufficient if and when the time comes than try to force Christianity into consistency with something it cannot be.

        I can’t remember which book and section of the Summa Aquinas dedicated to Just War doctrine, but that’s been the controlling doctrine in most of Christendom since (and also the only part of the Summa I actually read). coming on the heels of the crusades as it did, it’s certainly influenced by the church’s history in that regard.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Just picked up “Rubicon” by Tom Holland (enjoyed his podcasts and twitter comments) – he has a few other books I’m interested in looking up in the near term – “Dominion”, etc.

    • MikeS

      Können wir es bauen? Ja wir können!

      • dbleagle

        Impressive. And an example of how hard it is to destroy a rail line of communication with a single incident.

      • Homple

        Wir können das schaffen.

      • MikeS

        Correction:

        Können wir das schaffen?

        Yo, wir schaffen das!

    • rhywun

      I wonder how many months that translates to in American.

    • Pat

      To be fair, keeping the trains running on time is a very important cultural value in Germany…

      • rhywun

        And that’s not even a joke.

      • juris imprudent

        And where it was a miracle in Italy, under Mussolini.

      • MikeS

        They are not doing a great job of it currently.

  16. Gender Traitor

    When I logged on to my local public library’s website to renew the Medieval European history e-book I hadn’t been reading, I saw that the library was promoting their annual (I think they only have them once a year, but I haven’t really been paying close attention to the timing) Big Library Read, wherein they promote a single book and provide online discussion forums (fancy that!), resources for book clubs, etc. The current selection looked to be lighter in tone than the tome I’d been trying to plod through, so I thought I’d try it.

    A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey is a novel about estranged siblings forced by the terms of their mother’s will to return to their family home to come to an agreement about its allocation. Trouble is, years ago baby sister got her big brother and sis busted for drug possession, for which they were sent to prison. Awkward! I’ve read the first few chapters, but don’t feel particularly driven to continue. TO’G’s book mentioned above may be more up my alley at the moment. Or I’ll just concentrate on crafts – a properly crocheted top for myself or a ridiculously easy “loop” yarn throw for the cats to knead and claw apart on the back of the sofa.

    • UnCivilServant

      So the book title is supposed to be ironic?

      • Gender Traitor

        Hasn’t every family had one kid put the others behind bars?

        (Confession: I never did…I just wanted to.)

      • UnCivilServant

        My family may not be the mist high class, but none of us has even been arrested.

  17. Animal

    I’m making my way through Kurt Schlichter’s Kelly Turnbull novels. Fun, lots of action, remind me a little of the old “Mack Bolan – The Executioner” series. Interesting take on a post-divorce North America. I’ve read better fiction writers but Schlichter does present an interesting (if exaggerated) view of what a post-split American might be like.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      God, I tried to read a Mack Bolan book once after I finished junior high, when I loved them, and they did not age well.

    • Tundra

      I enjoyed them even of the remaining libertarian parts of me bristled at the mandatory service.

      I’ve read better fiction writers…

      I’m relying to one right now. Ever thought about taking a shot at the post-America America?

      • Animal

        Remember my one based on All Along the Watchtower? I’m planning another series on those same lyrics where we don’t “…lose a country to those retards” and the good guys win.

      • Tundra

        Perfect.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        Animal,

        We hope to drop in for a visit on our long-delayed trip to Alaska in Sep/Oct.

      • Animal

        Yeah, I tried to email you, but the one that was in the comments the other day doesn’t seem to work. You could try me at wardmclark (at) the mail that starts with G.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    This is glorious:

    Wow. That was awesome.

    • hayeksplosives

      I’d love to see vid of the making of the giant concrete structure they slid into place.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    if used appropriately.

    If a little is good, a lot is what we need.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    What now?

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed stricter fuel economy standards Friday to hasten the transition to electric vehicles.

    Automakers will be required to improve the average mileage of passenger cars sold between 2027 and 2032 by 2 percent a year, and the average mileage of light trucks by 4 percent a year. In order to achieve the estimated average fuel economy of 58 miles per gallon by 2032, roughly two-thirds of new cars automakers sell by then would have to be electric, the New York Times reported. The Transportation Department estimates that its proposal will avert more than 900 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

    The Times reported that while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is barred by law from taking electric vehicles into account when setting fuel economy standards, automakers are free to sell electric vehicles to comply.

    The Biden administration is thus attacking new auto sales from two separate angles. In April, the administration announced proposed EPA rules which would cut emissions in passenger cars and pickups by half from 2026 to 2032.

    ——-

    “Better vehicle fuel efficiency means more money in Americans’ pockets and stronger energy security for the entire nation,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.

    Mayor Petey is actually dumb enough to say that with a straight face. The money you “save” on gas won’t be enough to cover the higher sticker cost. Coming soon- thirty year auto loans.

    • John Nerfherder

      Thirty year auto loans and seven year batteries

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      I remember when Stephen (spits) Chu said the same thing, and it fucked up completely the indusry I was in, sent what was left of the economy after GWB into a tailspin that brought the GOP back after the Iraq fiasco. But the left is in love with Euro gas prices, and will do everything they can to get them.

    • rhywun

      LOL pure fantasy.

      How long will it take the American people to realize that the entire economy cannot run “on electricity” ever, let alone in five or ten years?

      • hayeksplosives

        As long as the elites have theirs, they don’t care about your needs.

        They are arrogant enough to believe they can maintain their lifestyles even with the rest of the supporting economy in tatters.

      • juris imprudent

        That’s the thing. Never in the entire history of humanity has the elite gotten away with that. That kind of corruption gets swept away, with a lot of bloodshed, and then a new elite restarts the cycle. I don’t know how you can be so fucking ignorant of that.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Very Mr. Burns-y.

      • Sensei

        Because every Top Man says, “this time it’s different”.

      • Suthenboy

        *remembering Yeltsin’s visit to an american grocery stoe in ‘89*

        Yep…..

    • Suthenboy

      Thier goal, like always in all that they do, is to destroy individual autonomy. The unspoken goal in this case is to take away peoples freedom of movement by taking away individual auto ownership entirely. Want a car? Buy an electric! Whats that you say? You cant charge it? Better take a bus.
      Now, ihre papiere bitte.

      • John Nerfherder

        This. It’s about destroying mobility.

  21. Derpetologist

    I read Khruschev Remembers in June. It’s a hoot. My favorite anecdote in it involves a Soviet diplomat sent to negotiate a trade deal in South America. He meets a guy at a bar and has a friendly conversation. Turns out that guy is a journalist and the next day, the main newspaper is full of lies about what concessions the Soviets will make. The diplomat rushes back to Moscow and explains the situation to Stalin. Stalin listens and says “well, it seems to be nothing more than a case of a scoundrel taking advantage of a naive man. Be more careful next time.” The young diplomat was dumbstruck for a moment before making a hasty retreat.

    Fun fact: the city now called Donetsk is the hometown of Khrushchev. It used to be called Yuzovka, which is a garbling of Hughes-ovka. Hughes was a British man who received a contract from the Tsar to set up a coal mine there. Khrushchev began as a mining engineer.

    Great moments in Biden plagiarism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmuAB5MqP0Y

    It’s not just that he shamelessly stole someone else’s speech; it’s that he’s so stupid he thought no one would notice.

    • hayeksplosives

      Holy cow. Aside from that last speaker, I recognized all the speeches he plagiarized.

      He thought nobody would notice he plagiarized JFK and RFK? Heck, in the second example he even channeled a little of JFK’s accent.

      • rhywun

        I can’t imagine a Democrat bowing out because of mere plagiarism today.

    • Pat

      It’s not just that he shamelessly stole someone else’s speech; it’s that he’s so stupid he thought no one would notice.

      Well it took 35 years, but I’d say he was vindicated not just in thinking no one would notice, but that within minutes of a Cliff’s Notes speech, the official public record would reflect that it was, in fact, the Kennedys and the Labour Party that plagiarized from Biden.

  22. Homple

    “Hughes was a British man who received a contract from the Tsar to set up a coal mine there.”

    Similar story behind the name of Longyearbyen in Norway.

    • John Nerfherder

      Trying to figure out what that first one was.

    • rhywun

      🤢🤮

    • Suthenboy

      Try dressing out a rattle snake.
      You will have listen to it thumping around in the fridge all night

    • Derpetologist

      *humane

    • Pat

      That’s not so much a trap as a rodent U-Haul – you’re just relocating them. The venerable old snap trap is still the best I’ve encountered.

      • UnCivilServant

        It was the most effective weapon in my arsenal when I had to eliminate the vermin.

      • Homple

        The heavy duty ones work very well for rats.

    • Ted S.

      Has his mom referenced the issue?

    • rhywun

      Oof. I’m glad I already crossed China off my list a long time ago.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    To be clear, CARB’s latest round of rules doesn’t kick in until 2026, but Stellantis feels it has to be prepared. It could’ve gotten an early jump on electrification and perhaps avoided such a frustrating turn of events, but now it’s stuck with the consequences of not doing so.

    Fuck off, slaver.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    I’d love to see vid of the making of the giant concrete structure they slid into place.

    Seriously. I wonder it if was cast and assembled in place, or cast in pieces and trucked to the site and assembled. I cannot imagine that was transportable in its final form.

    • hayeksplosives

      That’s why it would be cool to watch that part of the process too!

  25. Gustave Lytton

    Thank you dbeagle! I shall add that to my list. My NG divisional lineage took the scenic tour from Australia to New Guinea and surrounds, the PI, and then Japan. Was a tough slog and the division was in theater from April 42 to disbandment after VJ & occupation duty. The Marines earned every honor and respect, but the pacific was not a Marine only war.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    hat’s not so much a trap as a rodent U-Haul – you’re just relocating them. The venerable old snap trap is still the best I’ve encountered.

    If that’s what I think it is, as I told the girl at the ranch store: “Live trap? what do I want that for? I have live mice already. I need dead mice.”

    The battery powered mouse zapper is my fave. It’s like a reverse defibrillator. Mouse completes circuit… pfffft.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      The one that looks like a metal side-opening shoe box? Worked well on rats.

    • Suthenboy

      Native rats and mice dont go in your house.
      Mus musculus, the house mouse and rattus norveticus, the norway rat are the culprits. They aint called vermin for no reaSon. Both are very aggressive invaders and perhaps the most successful ivasive species of all time. They got so because they ride our coat tails.

      I hate them. Live traps my ass.

      • dbleagle

        Don’t forget the joys of centuries of bubonic plague from those two species as well.

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s the black rat that carries the bubonic plague. The intrusion of the Norway Rat corresponded with a drop in Plague because it’s not a reservoir species.

      • hayeksplosives

        👆👆

        Thank you for saving me the trouble of posting.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Who the hell wants a Stellantis product that isn’t a Jeep or truck related product if it doesn’t have a V8?

    My first thought was, “So long, Jeep.”

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      “So long, Jeep.”

      I looked into the new Cherokee models: I-4 only. Same with the Compass.

      Looks like I’ll be keeping mine for a while.

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM

        The only experience I have with an I-4 is the one in our 2013 Toyota RAV4 (2013 was the model year the RAV4’s ICE was switched from a V6 to an I-4).

        It’s been going strong for ten years now with no issues at all.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    The one that looks like a metal side-opening shoe box? Worked well on rats.

    Zapper? The one I have used is a plastic box with an opening in the end. A little light on top blinks when you’ve got a customer. Mice only. Much too small for rats.

  29. Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

    Just a general bitch, but why, why did Delta use the absolute worst fasteners back in the 50s? I am in the middle of ripping apart a Delta table saw/jointer combo, as I want some of it, but not all yada, yada, yada. But they use bare steel square nuts on long screws, so you cannot get a standard 8-point socket on them, and the screws are flat heads! And of such poor steel that they both rust solid and strip the slot.

    Son of a bitch. Now I get to pull the angle grinder out, when this should have been a simple job. Of course, I get to do all of this with a 90#
    3/4hp motor with cast iron bells no less, to move around and make sure it doesn’t fall on my foot when I do get it loose.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      OK, done. Got the pieces seperated (thank you angle grinder!) the parts I am saving moved into the garage, and a headstart on clearing out a bunch of metal from the garage to take to the scraper.

      But, this should have been a 10 minute job.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    But they use bare steel square nuts on long screws, so you cannot get a standard 8-point socket on them, and the screws are flat heads!

    I hate that. You can’t find a twelve point which will catch the corners? I fucking hate straight slotted screws with a passion. I just was working on something which came out of the box with slotted screws. I threw them all away and used philips head machine screws.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      The problem is that much of the nuts are in spots not reall accessable to socket wrenches, and the damnn slotted screws. Also, it ususally takes two hands without the ablity to see either of the fasteners. So, everything has to be by feel. I hauling my angle grinder out right now.

    • Tres Cool

      Like an erector (giggity) set?

  31. hayeksplosives

    I cleaned the litter boxes (full clean, not just scooped), took out the trash and recycling (cardboard—I no longer recycle plastic thanks to John Stossel).

    I believe this calls for a libation.

    • rhywun

      Packing all weekend.

      Drinking started at 19:00 sharp.

      • Pat

        Packing all weekend.

        Same. I’m going to just make it. Although it looks like I’ll have to pick up the trailer to tow my car from Vegas instead of the local place a mile from my house…

      • rhywun

        I have another month+ and I’m hella glad I started early.

        12 years of junk really builds up.

      • Pat

        Unavoidable, but I ended up cutting it razor close. I closed on my new place Friday, I’m signing the closing docs on my current place Monday, picking up the truck and trailer and getting it loaded on Tuesday, departing Wednesday, and arriving Thursday. If I get lucky on my phone calls to the utility companies tomorrow, I may even arrive with the power and water turned on.

    • rhywun

      I no longer recycle plastic thanks to John Stossel

      I do if it doesn’t involve any extra effort on my part. Like, a plastic jar of peanut butter goes straight in the trash. Same with metal, which goes with plastic here.

      • Tres Cool

        Metals recycle well, as does glass. Paper is ok. Plastic is generally a waste of time and money.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    I actually managed to get a couple of “ten minute” jobs done this afternoon. We used to joke about how by the time you got through two or three ten minute jobs the day was pretty much shot.

    • hayeksplosives

      Yeah, even taking out the trash is a bit of an ordeal with apartment life. I fill my canvas wagon with flattened cardboard all week, then add the trash on trash day, then wheel it down to the nearest dumpster and unload. And of course some neighbors also flatten cardboard like civilized humans but I only takes a couple of assholes to put unflattened boxes in and take up most of the room.

      I don’t know how the dudes who live on the third floor cope. I’m a ground floor person.

      • UnCivilServant

        You chuck it out the window.

  33. Suthenboy

    I had a buddy in jr high whose father worked in th Purina yard – 20 acres with a rail line for unloading and silos full of pet food, livestock food etc. kibble was all over th place from spillage. When workers went home and sun was down tens of thousands of rats swarmed the place. Friends dad would let us in with flashlights, extra batteries and our pellet rifles . We took turns holding the light for the other to shoot. I think we got more than 1K a few times. We both develped callouses fron pumping our guns.
    It never seemed to put a dent in the population.

    • rhywun

      LOL they never mention the killing fields in those cute Cat Chow commercials.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Probably went right into the rending vats in the morning.

      • rhywun

        *meow meow meow meow Tastes a little gamey*

  34. Tres Cool

    Ay! Dios Mio!
    What a shit-show. But Im finally back in the (937).

    • Gender Traitor

      Oh, you poor thing! Hope you can get a decent night’s rest! (And that week off ASAP!)

      • Tres Cool

        Maybe next week. I leave for a project in Virginia either tomorrow afternoon, or damn early Tuesday (if I can push it off).

  35. Rufus the Monocled

    I really need to swing by more often. Heck, I don’t even recognize any new names.

    DO ANY OF THESE NEW FOLKS WORK?

    • Sean

      Nope. You hiring? I am.

      • The Hyperbole

        I’ll work 8am to 2pm for $400 a day 4 days a week, no weekends, and I’ll need $5,000 for a sign on/relocation fee. I don’t do roofing.

      • Tres Cool

        Will you be the prime contractor on the job to re-shingle (and some wood repair) on my garage?

        Pay will be in cases of Claussen’s Hearty Garlic Deli Sliced Dill pickles.

    • Tres Cool

      Oh, you should see my timesheet for the past month, Muppet.
      The Man has been getting every penny and more out of my ass.

  36. Drake

    We moved on Friday. I’ve been reading box labels all weekend,

  37. rhywun

    So I’m watching live roundball from Seattle. The American game has imported the current European fashion of far-left “Supporters” sections in one of the end zones. Flags are common and you might think they’d be waving flags representing their team* but no, it’s all trannies, BLM, and “anti-racist”.

    *Which is, FWIW, the norm in Aussie rules football – I’ve never seen any political BS at one of those matches.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      It’s Seattle. Every single far left slogan will be represented.

  38. DEG

    It’s a bit old, but I just discovered it. Jeremy Kaufman add on stopping Mass. Migration.

    • rhywun

      We need a wall.

      And libertarians wonder why no one takes them seriously.

      • Homple

        Reason.com libertarians anyway.

      • rhywun

        I’m not sure what kind of libertarian thinks “build the wall” between two American states is a serious argument.

      • R C Dean

        In AZ, you’d probably find some.

      • kinnath

        I have repeatedly said we need to wall in the cities. That’s were the disease is at.

        The east and west coasts are pretty well lost.

        But we should be able isolate the infection to the blue hotspots between the Rockies and Appalachians.

  39. MikeS

    Quick peek into climate hypochondria:

    Climate Change Obsession Is a Real Mental Disorder

    A study in 2021 of 16- to 25-year-olds in 10 countries including the U.S. reported that 59% were very or extremely worried about climate change, and 84% were at least moderately worried. Forty-five percent claimed they were so worried that they struggled to function on a daily basis, the definition of an anxiety disorder.

  40. kinnath

    We need to start a series here. Everyone get a shot. How does the end start? When do we tip over into open warfare?

    I actually think it starts in Europe. They are much, much further down the road of disassembling their critical energy, manufacturing, and agricultural sectors. There will be cold, hungry people in the not too distant future in Northern Europe.

    The critical question is whether is happens soon enough to have cause some political reversals in the US.

    • Fourscore

      What does the military do? Open rebellion or a mutiny with a strong military leader.

      No grid = no communicatons

      • kinnath

        I don’t know.

        I rely on friends with a history in the services to tell me how that would go.

    • kinnath

      Of course, we may never get to civil war, because of nuclear winter.

    • rhywun

      I would like to think that it happens soon enough to clear some of the fog out of heads here.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      I was gonna write up my thoughts on this, but you should totally put together a piece, and that way all of us can contribute to it, or write rebuttles, that sort of thing.

      So, go kinnath!

    • Sir Digby Classic

      How does the end start? When do we tip over into open warfare?

      Well, politicians only start the war, but they’ll hide themselves away, so….keep an eye out for that, I guess.

    • John Nerfherder

      It starts with the collapse of the European financial system which is getting very close.

      After that it can go a number of ways, but I still hold out hope that Biden is not long for his position. I think barring any extraordinary events the risk of direct war with Russia has subsided somewhat.

      But the Blob wants war with China now. They just can’t quit.

  41. hayeksplosives

    n 2002, I was renting a free-standing house in Minnesota (with my German now-ex). There was a detached garage with no electricity so we ran a thick extension cord out there, Secret of NIMH style.

    In November I noticed a little field mouse coming in the garage and darting into a long thick roll of some sort of paper/construction material. Kraut hubs decided to tear down the unknown roll and hack it up with a saws all. Clearly the little mouse had been working on its winter prep inside the tube.

    I took pity and set a humane trap. Then thought “it’s Minnesota November, she doesn’t have time to build another winter shelter. Then I immediately went to Walmart and came back with a mouse cage, run wheel and all.

    She was a deer mouse: big round black eyes, tawny coat. She loved the run wheel, mouse chow, and occasional dry banana chip.

    Spring came so I drove several miles away, having read that deer mice and field mice return within 4 miles. I opened the cage and she ran out, but then stopped and looked back. Note that she’d never become tame or let me touch her.

    So she only was 3 feet away. I had to say “shoo!” and fake coming after her to get her to run away, and even that was pretty casual.

    I’m a softie/enabler.

    • rhywun

      I’m a softie

      #metoo

      The one domestic mouse I caught was in Buffalo in the early 90s. My cat was useless, just batting at it with a paw. I was up all night trapping that f’n thing and finally IIRC I just tossed it out the window and never saw it again.

    • creech

      Mice don’t return from 4 miles away. And, unfortunately, if you set one free in another mouse’s territory, one of them is unlikely to survive the contact. But I still live trap the ones around my place and take them to a nice swamp area a mile away and wish them well.

    • UnCivilServant

      Sometimes I debate having a pet mouse.

      Then I watch a video on how to care for them and remember I react very poorly to them.

      • Gender Traitor

        There are also dwarf hamsters, which might not evoke the unpleasant associations.

  42. Yusef drives a Kia

    Does anyone know how to rosin a bow? I just bought a cello and can’t make it sound,

    • Sir Digby Classic

      How do, Yusef?!

      The best (i.e only) I can do is point ya to a YT video, as I’ve never even handled an instrument that requires rosin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1JfMq8ds_Q

      It looks to these untrained eyes to be a pretty good primer, of sorts. I trust it’s in some way helpful.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I have watched a few a few videos, but I’m missing something, Cheers!🍻

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Sir D! How do YOU do?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Thanks!

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Oh, why is The Doctor 👎 👎 for once?

      • Sean

        Poor sleep, sore neck.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Well, I hope it loosens up with a quickness.

        I had better try to go back to sleep myself.

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, Sean, and nighty-night, TO’G!

      I’m sorry about your sore neck, Sean. You have my empathy – I’m sometimes plagued with a sore neck, especially after sleeping. I blame a long-ago auto accident wherein my Ford Festiva (AKA “roller skate with roof”) was rear-ended by a Ford Explorer. (Yes, it was Ford-on-Ford violence.) I neglected to get all the physical therapy recommended for my whiplash because sovereign immunity (the Explorer belonged to the Dayton Metropolitan Housing Authority) meant MY insurance had to pay for the damage to my car, and I was convinced I’D have to pay for the damage to ME. 🤕

      • R.J.

        Dang. That’s awful.

      • Gender Traitor

        Inorite??? Good morning, R.J.!

      • R.J.

        Morning. Normally I am already on the computer working and having meetings. This morning I am taking the kiddo to camp.

      • Grosspatzer

        That definitely beats working. Enjoy!

      • UnCivilServant

        Today is day 1 of vendor provided training for a product we bought… four months ago?

    • UnCivilServant

      Morning.

      I got the trash to the curb, logged in to work. Need to make breakfast.

      • Gender Traitor

        Good morning, U! What’s on the menu?

      • UnCivilServant

        Chili dogs on keto tortillas.

      • Gender Traitor

        Yum! With lots of shredded cheese on top, I hope? 😋🧀

      • UnCivilServant

        😟 I ran out of cheese… 🚫🧀

      • Gender Traitor

        😭

  43. Grosspatzer

    Mornin’, reprobates!

    Frosty this morning, broke out a flannel shirt. My kind of climate change.

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, ‘patzie! Flannel?? Srsly? That must be a refreshing change of pace temperature! It’s already 65 here, though with a forecast high of only 83, which beats the heck out of last week’s 90s.

      • Grosspatzer

        59 this morning, top chilly for short sleeves. Did not reach 80 yesterday, I love it.

      • rhywun

        We’re topping out in the low 80s all week. The previous three weeks or so are but a dim memory. This is what summer is supposed to be.

  44. Gender Traitor

    Since we’re sixteen hours into this post, I hope it won’t seem unseemly for me to indulge in some Shameless Self-Promotion: I have a post scheduled to post this very evening on this very, very website! “Cultural Literacy, American Style” features, among other gems, opinionated opinions (but because they are mine, they are correct,) the world’s greatest “knock knock” joke, and a commercial for a dearly departed and sorely missed SW OH venerated institution and head shop. Most of all, it enthusiastically invites YOUR opinions in response, so I hope the Glibertariat will weigh in with gusto!

    • Grosspatzer

      * updates calendar *

    • Gender Traitor

      (Or are we the Gliberati?)

      • Gender Traitor

        ::duly notes::

      • juris imprudent

        He’s a bureaucrat, not an authority.

      • UnCivilServant

        You broke out the Ad Hom because you know I’m right.

    • robodruid

      I shall consider it

  45. R.J.

    I submitted a fast post on climate change gaslighters.